Trip lock

ABSTRACT

A trip lock for the drop side of an infant&#39;&#39;s crib comprising a pair of movable lock rods having adjacent ends turned up and in engagement with a trip lever to operate the same, said trip lever bearing upon said ends and rotating the rods through a relatively small angle, said rod ends also being in engagement with a pair of opposed cam surfaces causing the rods to be moved relative to each other to unlock the drop side, wherein said trip lever is provided with a raised or struck-up bearing member for the rod ends to ride on.

lJnited States Patent 1191 N eunherz et a1.

[ TRIP LOCK [75] Inventors: Herbert W. Neunherz; Robert G.

Bryant, both of Gardner, Mass.

[73] Assignees Gem Industries, l1nc., Gardner,

Mass.

22 Filed: Dec. 27, 1971 21 App1.No.:211,939

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Neunherz .1 292/4 Spooner 292/226 Payor 292/D1G. 48 lsidor 292/D1G. 49

Primary Examiner-Richard E. Moore Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Charles R. Fay

[57] ABSTRACT A trip lock for the drop side of an infants crib comprising a pair of movable lock rods having adjacent ends turned up and in engagement with a trip lever to operate the same, said trip lever bearing upon said ends and rotating the rods through a relatively small angle, said rod ends also being in engagement with a pair of opposed cam surfaces causing the rods to be moved relative to each other to unlock the drop side, wherein said trip lever is provided with a raised or struck-up bearing member for the rod ends to ride on.

2 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures TRIP LOCK BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Reference is hereby made to U.S. Pat. No. 2,327,735 which shows a trip lock for infants cribs of the general nature disclosed herein. A deficiency in that construction was that the terminal end portions 30, 30 of the bends at 52 on the rods 28, 28 were found upon occasion to tend to dig into the trip lever 34 causing roughness in the action of the trip lever and interfering with the ease of operation, and it is the general object of the present invention to provide an improvement in a similar device obviating this difficulty, aswell as de-burring, and allowing the turned up ends to be shorter, facilitating assembly of the parts.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION On the drop side of an infants crib having drop side guide rods, a pair of locking rods having springs causing the same to move into locking action with respect to apertures or recesses for the purpose, and including a pivoted trip lever with cam means for retracting said rods from locking position against the action of said springs in order to let the crib side drop. Said locking rods are turned up at their inner ends and these rest against the trip lever and are rotated thereby when the trip lever is rotated. The turned up rod ends are in engagement with cam means for drawing said rods towards each other upon motion of the trip lever, which has a bearing element rectilinear in form against which said rod ends bear, said bearing element being raised from the surface of the trip lever to provide that the extreme ends of the terminal portions do not in any way contact the surface of the trip lever.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. I is a view in elevation, partly in section, which illustrates the rear side of the apparatus;

FIG. 2 is a similar view illustrating the locking rods in unlocking condition;

FIG. 3 is a section on line 3-3 of FIG. 2 on a reduced scale showing the trip lever in locking position;

FIG. 4 is a similar view showing the position of the trip lever in unlocking position, and

FIG. 5 is a sectional view on line 5-5 in FIG. 2 illustrating the cams.

PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION The reference numeral indicates the bottom run of a crib drop side which has spindle thereon connecting with a similar upper run, not shown, to form the drop side for the crib as is well understood in the art. It is not believed that this drop side needs to be further illustrated. The drop side is guided by the crib drop rods 12, 12 which are secured more or less as usual to the corner posts 14, 14. The drop rods in this case have recesses 16, 16 therein to receive the locking ends l8, 18 of the locking rods 20, 20. These locking rods are mounted in any way desired on the run 10, being shown herein as located in a groove therein, and they are longitudinally movable between the drop side locking position as shown in FIG. 1, and the unlocked position shown in FIG. 2, against the action of individual springs 22, 22.

In order to so retract the locking rods 20, 20 to release them from the recesses 16, 16 there is provided a trip lever 24 on the lower run 10. As will become more apparent hereinafter, the springs 22, 22 maintain the trip lever normally in the FIG. 3 position where it is slightly pressed outwardly with respect to the crib drop side, in position to be pushed by hand or by knee to the lock rod retracting position which is shown in FIG. 4, i.e., inwardly with respect to the crib drop side and of the crib.

This trip lever is provided with a pair of bent-up side walls 26, 26 through which the locking rods 20, 20 extend. There is also a relatively small cam bracket 28 fixedly mounted on the run 10 by any means such as a fastener 30. This cam bracket also has side walls 32, 32 and the locking rods 20, 20 also extend through these walls so that it will be seen that the trip lever is therefore suspended from the rods 20, 20 which are held in position by means of the side walls of the cam bracket.

The cam bracket also has a front wall 34 in which are cut out the two inclined cam sides or edges 36, 36. As shown in FIG. 5 the terminal end portions 38, 38 of the rods 20, 20 are located in the cut out cam portion and rest at the widest point of the cams when the trip lever is in the FIG. 3 or locking position. It being remembered that the cam bracket 28 is fixed so that the cams 36, 36 are also fixed, it will be apparent that when the trip lever 24 is moved from FIG. 3 position to FIG. 4 position, the terminal end portions 38 of the lock rods 20 are also so moved and to the same extent and are thereby forced up the cam sides or edges 36, 36 so that they are drawn together. A comparison of FIGS. 1 and 2 clearly show this action.

In order to prevent the terminal portions 38, 38 from digging into the rear surface of the trip lever 24, there has been provided a rectilinear raised portion 40 which as shown e.g. may be a bent-up portion of the material of the trip lever 24. However this is positioned adjacent the extreme ends of the terminal portions of the rod ends 38, 38 and insure that these ends will not impinge upon the rear surface of the trip lever 34. This is clearly shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

Therefore it will be seen that the action of the device is even and smooth and cannot be interrupted by any accidental gouging or digging in of the ends of the terminal portions 38 of the lock rods 20.

We claim:

I. A trip lock for the drop side of an infants crib comprising a rectilinearly movable elongated lock rod, a recess receiving an end thereof, saidlock rod being on the drop side and the recess being in a fixed position on the crib so that the drop side is locked when the recess receives the end of the lock rod,

a trip lever pivoted with respect to said drop side, a fixed cam, the lock rod having an angularly disposed end opposite the end adapted to be received in the recess, said angled and normally resting against the trip lever and against the cam, and a spring normally maintaing said rod in this position,

rear surface facing the crib generally. 

1. A trip lock for the drop side of an infant''s crib comprising a rectilinearly movable elongated lock rod, a recess receiving an end thereof, said lock rod being on the drop side and the recess being in a fixed position on the crib so that the drop side is locked when the recess receives the end of the lock rod, a trip lever pivoted with respect to said drop side, a fixed cam, the lock rod having an angularly disposed end opposite the end adapted to be received in the recess, said angled and normally resting against the trip lever and against the cam, and a spring normally maintaing said rod in this position, and a struck-up bearing element on said trip lever, the angled end of the lock rod bearing on said bearing element and spacing the same from the trip lock, the trip lock upon being pivoted in a predetermined direction moving the angled end of the rod against the cam thereby retracting the rod from the locking recess.
 2. The trip lock of claim 1 wherein said bearing element is disposed at the rear surface of the trip lock, said rear surface facing the crib generally. 